Frankie Militano
Frankie Brooke

First post:
Nov 12, 2016

Frankie was recently diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, which has spread to many bones in her body. She is 2 1/2 years old and she's the most strong willed, energetic girl ever! She is my oldest baby and she has a little 1 year old brother, Cayden. I know she can beat this! But me and my husband, Mitchell, are/were shocked at the news. It was completely out of the blue!

My spunky little girl had no symptoms to be concerned about or anything. I had brought her to see her pediatrician for a cough. By God's grace, the doctor noticed something anyone else could have missed. I never noticed it. There was a swollen lymph node above her collar bone that caused him some concern, so he ordered xrays just to be safe. Well, the xray showed something and we ended up getting admitted into the hospital and stayed over night so Frankie could get a CT scan the next morning. We were just hoping and praying it wasn't CANCER.

The results were the most heart wrenching, horrifying, terrifying, and scariest words we've heard in my entire life. "She has a tumor deep in her stomach about the size of a lemon, and it has spread to her rib bone and other places in her body" My world flipped upside down. I felt numb, I felt shaky, I thought I would faint. I could NOT believe my ears.

Thankfully, we have amazing family and friends all nearby who have been more than helpful through all of this. It's almost been a week since this all started.